We caught our queens during the Spring nuptial flight in May 2017. For the first few days we kept them in a large glass jar until we were able to get find suitable test tubes for them. We initially ended up using cut-flower water vials.

Queen #1 is a C. laevigatus. She's shinier than the other two. When we found her she already had the dent in her gaster. She started laying eggs a full week after being put in a test tube.

Queen #2 is a C. modoc. We initially thought she was a male but after some sit-up like movements, we put her in a vial and later that evening, she had already laid an egg.

Queen #3 is also a C. modoc. She was found roaming around inside our house, about week after we found the other two. So far, she is the "runt" of the three. Her eggs only pupated about a week ago. She spends most of her time staying directly over them.

As of today, Queen #1 has two workers, with two more slowly poking their heads out. Queen #2 has three workers. We had some concerns with Queen #2's first worker as it had some issues coming out of her pupa (she took almost 24hrs) and didn't seem healthy at first. She twitched her legs a lot and moved awkwardly. Some time during the following night, two more of her workers eclosed but unfortunately, they ate one. It was so sad, there were limbs strewn around the vial. We first thought that the two new workers had turned on the first nanitic (we'll call her Worker #2.1 for now because she's Queen #2's first worker) but there were remnants of an ant still inside one of the pupa so we think it was a newly-eclosed one.

Below is a photo of Worker #2.1 coming out her pupa.

We've noticed that some nanitics come out practically overnight, while others take a day or more. We're trying to observe if there's a difference in health between them.

Our test tubes and acrylic containers came in today. Queen #1's cotton has molded over and is pretty much dried out so it was perfect timing. Unfortunately, I neglected to measure the diameter of the vial that we currently have them in and the test tubes that we got are 2mm smaller. My concern is for Queen #2 as she still has her wings and already has trouble moving around. Hopefully, she'll drop them soon.

After finally getting the cotton after a few attempts, we taped the tubes together and wrapped the newer ones in black paper. Within the first couple of hours, Queen #1's workers moved their brood into their new home. However, she seems adamant in staying in the dirty vial. On the other side, it took Queen #2 a little while longer but she has moved into her new test tube as well. Unfortunately, her workers (along with her brood) have not. Hopefully, by morning they will have settled in properly and we can dispose of their old homes with no further complications.

We are leaving Queen #3 alone for now as her larvae have still not to pupated yet.

Currently, Queen #1 has fully moved into her new home. It took her later that night to finally move in.

Unfortunately, Queen #2 went back to join her brood in the dirty vial and has stayed there for a couple of days. So today, we decided to "encourage" Queen #2 and her brood to move. I dug out the heated mattress pad from winter storage, turned it on and slipped their end of the vial inside the folds. It took them about twenty minutes to make the move. Queen #2 went first and then it took a good ten minutes for her workers to follow suit with their one pupa, a few larvae and a dozen or so of eggs.

It's been about a week since Queen #1 and #2 have moved into their new test tubes. We are anxiously awaiting the arrival of our tubing. Since our test tubes needed a 7/16" tube for a perfect fit, we had to order them from online to ensure that they would be ant-safe. It should arrive on Monday. Then we will finally be able to connect them to their foraging area.

Both queens are well into raising their second batch of eggs. Queen #1 has about eight eggs and two pupae. Queen #2 has about eight to ten eggs and larvae. One should be pupating soon.

None of Queen #3's larvae have made any growth whatsoever. It's raising some concern but for now we'll continue to leave her be.